Delarey stole along the beach, walking lightly despite his fatigue. He
felt curiously excited, as if he were on the heels of some adventure. He
passed the Caffè Berardi almost like a thief in the night, and came to
the narrow strip of pebbles that edged the still and lakelike water,
protected by the sirens' isle. There he paused. He meant to gain that
lonely land, but how? By the water lay two or three boats, but they were
large and clumsy, impossible to move without aid. Should he climb up to
the Messina road, traverse the spit of ground that led to the rocky wall,
and try to make his way across it? The feat would be a difficult one, he
thought. But it was not that which deterred him. He was impatient of
delay, and the détour would take time. Between him and the islet was the
waterway. Already he had been in the sea. Why not go in again? He
stripped, packed his clothes into a bundle, tied roughly with a rope made
of his handkerchief and bootlaces, and waded in. For a long way the water
was shallow. Only when he was near to the island did it rise to his
breast, to his throat, higher at last. Holding the bundle on his head
with one hand, he struck out strongly and soon touched bottom again. He
scrambled out, dressed on a flat rock, then looked for a path leading
upward.
The ground was very steep, almost precipitous, and thickly covered with
trees and with undergrowth. This undergrowth concealed innumerable rocks
and stones which shifted under his feet and rolled down as he began to
ascend, grasping the bushes and the branches. He could find no path.
What did it matter? All sense of fatigue had left him. With the activity
of a cat he mounted. A tree struck him across the face. Another swept off
his hat. He felt that he had antagonists who wished to beat him back to
the sea, and his blood rose against them. He tore down a branch that
impeded him, broke it with his strong hands, and flung it away viciously.
His teeth were set and his nerves tingled, and he was conscious of the
almost angry joy of keen bodily exertion. The body--that was his God
to-night. How he loved it, its health and strength, its willingness, its
capacities! How he gloried in it! It had bounded down the mountain. It
had gone into the sea and revelled there. It had fished and swum. Now it
mounted upward to discovery, defying the weapons that nature launched
against it. Splendid, splendid body!